StrikerFox

You and me both! Mercs/Storm is my favorite to play and that's comparing it to Thugs/Time, Necro/Dark, Demons/Thermal and other ATs. I think Demons improved a bit with the i27 patch. Ice Mistral's Torment proc IO in the T1 and T3 pet helps. I did a short 95 second test run around Atlas with it and the Impeded Swiftness proc slotted. IMT proc'd 13 times, IS proc'd 11 times and had 9 OF knockdowns on the T1 Cold Demonling alone. Haven't tried it in the Demon Prince yet. Edit: Amazing on the Demon Prince too. 3min 11sec test with 85 procs, 38 IS and 47 IMT.

I did a lot of testing with Power Transfer procs on a NB/Regen Stalker. I'm not at home to double check the numbers but remember it averaging out to be 3.9 hp/sec regen per proc. The Panacea unique adds around 3.3 hp/sec. On average, regen wise, a Power Transfer proc is stronger than Numina's, Regenerative Tissue and Impervious Skin uniques. But that's on Stalkers. I'm not sure if/how the numbers change with ATs with a higher HP amount.

So weird. I didn't think anyone actually read my stuff. Haha! I know 0.3s doesn't sound like much but when trying to build for dps, it is. Take into consideration the chain length when run seamless: 1.452 (BF) + 1.188 (Abl) + 1.452 (SS) + 1.188 (Abl) = 5.28s. The gap would occur twice in each cycle of the chain, so 0.6s. The gap would equate to a 11ish % dps loss. In 2 cycles of the chain, 0.3s gap would occur 4 times which equals 1.2s. The seamless chain is one Ablating Strike ahead of the 0.3s gap chain. Gaps add up over time and it's noticeable when fighting AVs, pylons and GMs. Say a seamless chain can defeat a pylon in 180s. Adding 11ish % makes it 200s, but in that additional 20s, the pylon is regenerating. So that 200s turns into 210s. But since you're a tank, you're probably taunting or something to fill in those gaps. So it's probably fine.

When you go for long walks on the beach with the one you love... but there's only one set of footprints because you're following their every step from a distance.

I'm thinking about making a Ninja MM from outer space. Yes, space ninjas. Creating Star Wars-esque names by using regular words, but spelling them backwards. Examples: Open door = Nepo Rood Dinner table = Rennid Elbat Oven mits = Nevo Stim Red sandals = Der Sladnas Vanilla cake = Allinav Ekac Broken mirror = Nekorb Rorrim Civic Racecar = Civic Racecar... Wait, what?!

I tried when Homecoming first started with Merc pets. It didn't work but it may have been changed since 2019. Mutation didn't work either.

I don't worry that much about defense with a MM Storm built for KD. Using a KD build sort of fixes the endurance issue as well. If enemies are on the ground and can't attack, -tohit/-recharge/slow doesn't matter as much. I don't have Snow Storm or Hurricane on my build. In retrospect, I wonder if running Hurricane would work out better than me keeping Gale on auto? Reworked my Mercs/Storm to Ninja. I tried to jam in a little more endurance because of Smoke Flash. Also added Victory Rush though I've never used it so don't know how useful it is. Also lost some accuracy building for more end but FR's -def debuff will probably solve that. I have never played Storm with melee pets before. I just put Mercs on aggressive and staple them behind me while I do my thing. It pretty much eliminates melee threats and I'm just concerned about range/AoE attacks. But with Ninjas entering melee could mean that they end up taking more hits. Trial and error likely needed. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1596;788;1576;HEX;| |78DA6D534B4F135114BE33730B7DF06829E521E5D1966781814A74E382083EA2520| |22902BA210D0C30A69DD63E14972E5CBAD144FF8189CF6888E0D618172CDC1B71A3| |461415354197643CBDE7C84CA2934CBE73BF7B1EDF3DF7DCF8CAB18A4727AF0E33C| |93B9A4AE6F373F164BEA0E5D2BAB1E08C170BC9829E3114065F39FC0DD6E65CA298| |4E670C755C372E24F3ADB68D91E2E2A29A28647269F2D18D25DF296359CB694641F| |D6BB8273299949AC86ADA42B530C7B4E48296CB2FEB598F589F48E94BCB059FB0E3| |4943CF1653424CF078569F576DF5E2C9798D545F69009143F03F7130FA4C07DB058| |8B998FCBB7402CEE4690E6BCEF83B0571541658760EF92CB7C57EE022A6EC9A2CD0| |B986B99C1F1581EE755CBB3FC1DACFD94570972856FA8CF92BB609BF20567D25FC8| |6E8DD417C0C9A158CE5CA5DD452778FF03E62C303C28788AB10834735992304E0E2| |2C0C37552E449852792FEA3B4098873017EE719757C2BD00627000CFD4725011795| |AEA816FE6EC2914F0608CC343BDEC3A8BF57BCAD0B7E715F6A76716F9E87359F03E| |D05249F52AA95E88EA85F6506FE40CE688EC620F0B90A29AEA55539EC8902C62DAA| |94EFB166A6D3F8C7C27F57F0DB4FAB01F922F445A09FDA0C54F7DF11F2A4DB4C2A2| |8435B017C03D1610FE9CB980AB474EA9179A390BBEA17A9B885D7BC8AF43DD46BAF| |7C629EC41CB4BBCD7B62DA0BB5CAC6D06F9B6F778A6D036F0559C5D02BA893437C5| |71163BC7113DA0A199F69A37918BBD457C06355BE9EE5B49F365C815261D619ADDE| |8306AEDA35EF6FD92C5BDF68D20DFBF813A57C0BD83623B28B6BF9F7C54C48101C2| |41C218698114DDD4DB6EBAE798E89993ADC35E2F9DA13741679842AC85F3A974069| |57A7C27CAD8207183D7D12F6EBD493368D9A5A569B2313B7304802B6CC27A894C12| |5E3B6E60E88EA508CEC4773BD78D3DFC6171B2745A1273E59DC6B75013C259FD69F| |928D20DEC45CD4DC4DA5B84B77156A3FFE835FFF3B9BCFBAFDF1CF34302CC6EBEB6| |D9BE5ACB9E0C58F66AC987625F842D7BD26DF9CCD8EC599B7DDE661F8D5A5D1E01D| |B43F668747FBA4D56B73F91E61FC5800FFD| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

-The build will have endurance problems. -Gale will scatter targets out of Provoke range without the Sudden Acceleration IO. -Panacea will only have a chance to proc when you activate Hoarfrost. Slot it in Health instead. -Miracle will only have a chance to proc with O2 Boost is used. Slot it in Health instead. -Steamy Mist could slot the LotG +7.5% recharge, Shield Wall and Reactive Defense uniques. -Imo, Hasten is a must for Storm to get Tor, FR and LS out as often as possible. I don't think the Tankermind playstyle really works as well with Storm than other secondaries. Tankermind draws aggro away from pets, takes the alpha and stays in BG mode to sponge damage. Storm utilizes KD to keep incoming damage to a minimum. Gale alone can eliminate the alpha attack where Provoke does not. Followed by FR, Tor, LS, Hur, more Gale and pets will keep targets flopping around like fish on land. I would probably prefer to open with Storm powers instead of Provoke.

The knockbacks will be pretty brutal for your melee pets. Especially Tornado, Hurricane and Gale. Pets will end up spending more time chasing than attacking. Sudden Acceleration KB to KD IO will help save that headache. Also the Overwhelming KD unique IO. The build will have endurance issues especially with Hurricane active. Currently your build has a 0.36/s gain and 0.82/s gain without Hurricane. A 2.25/s end gain (end rec - end use) seems to work pretty good for my Mercs/Storm build. Build is way over the S/L resist cap of 75%. The Shield Wall unique is really good adding +5% resist to all damage types. I consider Gale to be the best power for a Storm MM. A power that can KD mobs of enemies and recharges fast enough to keep them down. Consider slotting it up. Accuracy, endurance, range, Sudden Acceleration KD, Force Feedback and Annihilation procs. Put it on auto and KD nonstop.

I think it's a good change. Slightly weaker defense wise but time saved from not casting individual bubbles, will be will be spent attacking and healing. The math in my head is saying it will be a -2% def loss, unenhanced, for MM, T1 and T3 pets. Double bubble vs the new single bubble. But Protector Bots will be a +5.5% def gain. I think that free time for Protector Bots to attack is pretty huge. I've watched them bubble before and it's both bots casting FF for 30-40 seconds. Maybe every 3 minutes?

There's are some changes to Placate coming. They're listed in the Beta Patch notes. It can be read here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/32394-beta-patch-notes-for-november-5th-2021-issue-27-second-chances-page-3-build-1/ Placate [Focused Feedback: Sleep and Placate] The Placate targeted power, typically found in Stalker power sets has been changed to meet the following standards: -Range 60ft (some versions were set at 50ft) -Cast time 0.8s, down from 1.5s (sometimes 1.67s) -Instant Hit (down from 0.5s delay upon activation) -Changed from Single Target into 15ft radius Sphere AoE -Target Cap increased from 1 to 5 This applies to the following set categories: Stalker Melee Bane Spider Soldier Widow Teamwork I like that it's an AoE. It's cast time change won't amount to much. Maybe more effective while leveling with Placate taking effect sooner as it may prevent multiple incoming attacks. Slight improvement to the Empower combo for DB Stalkers. I don't see myself respec to implement it on any of my Stalkers.

I named thug pets after characters from the tv show Welcome Back Kotter. Thugs are Kotter/De Labarre, Arsonist is Horshack, Enforcers are Epstein/Washington and the Bruiser is Barbarino. I've been using the Pacific Rim, Jaeger name generator to make names for some other pets. It will come up with names like Tango Gypsy, Stellar Enigma, Rattler Horizon etc. Pretty unique names. There's also a Kaiju name generator that fit Demons, Beasts or Necro pets quite well. Search for it on Google, there are several.

Ninja/Storm. The Tsoo Sorcerors have some Storm powers. Maybe that could be worked into the story somehow. I don't recall having too much problems vs Tsoo with a Merc/Storm. I'm interested to hear what you come up with. Have fun!

What attack chain are you using? I would build enough recharge to just run the attack chain and to get Hasten perma. Use IO Boosters to get there if needed. If you're just mashing buttons, just get Hasten perma. I would probably run with a build similar to this. Attack chain: [BU]-AS-Abl-NS-SS-repeat. The 'BU-AS-Abl' portion will activate the Sweep Combo. It doesn't take a lot of recharge to run so it frees up the slotting to pursue other things the build may need. I sort of went for +damage bonuses. Power Transfer procs since the build lacks a heal. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1569;754;1508;HEX;| |78DA65945B4F135110C7CF764F81ED1DDA422BB4D07269A1B074D507232A0922264| |A1322896F58177A80CA86366C49C0CB0351137D5523AFFAC88B2F7E023F8089D737| |AF1F003531F1CDD4D99D295BD34DCA6FCECCFCCFCC9C3D4B6167D6F7E2E2DE3493F| |CE70DDD348B8B35DDD8105B1D85ED9A5E2B573699F5B4C32F4E9162411842A8B3DB| |BA519C31F49230938DC8AC58159BA65017B7ABB0BA22560DB1234CE659A8540C75B| |12A44C9679BF342AF9637D7FCF662AEBCB65E8355B0112A892D73BD5C8D5FA89657| |D4994A69B758D0CD9AD8DA6DF416836EF2F0DB53E08F64F55777B31DCE98C6996B9| |77813C96F116F23DBEE20971CADC4A260680A6BFB2DDBB16B109330C6250FC63ABC| |443FD21320069145D0C8A4914913214D8434DDA4E9B6359CDD038D9BFA777FC4DAB| |18CCBCE896591C7468963C8BE9CCBCEBBAFE05B01ADABFD19C59E23930798938604| |85665472CCF62589D741EFC598CB1BC17E92740E037FC19DE0EC2EE4F8A93FFF2AC| |3D81AF115D40873967A8DB55237D09FDAC0FD75D00651CB82298C75433F9DD44F67| |086B0E4691CB901FA65838D21C539804BA28CD1AFD84E734F81939F40529434E0FE| |AE51ECB48286C48936DFDD071A0C2D9C839EB2ACBEC01D48AD35CF153D8FFC8B46C| |CF9C398DEBCC14F10C72F42C7205B4BD3457EF04CEC5A17682F64B78B0F7512FD18| |71CF3130344BA030F61BF7E9C8DF7BFC159C6DF12DF11DF23273E204BA049D359A5| |AD731C875814C93B191BA6D8F03EF41C83D81FBAFB10CB52ADEC38CE33A91227897| |9BC439A86EB76D0E468BF1CEDA7D17E5D30B74A67A1D23B160A7E9B962F7F19FBED| |E58C9E7ABD8F1F7D772EF615E3BE6FC891EFC879279FB1290097D9022719F8A401B| |C63879EA3EF9449F42E7E34FBB298F7D3F1C9D225303250F32A9E7F208535B543D9| |3EBF5F4EAE5B7A846711788C0C3D2136E67F8A67D4B58FACFFFF8C358F613958BEC| |5A3B5784EB4784EB6789410FCB3A1037D1986DA641FA4C1C6E6EB733D8E3D1F766C| |DDE3D8CB4DF64293BDD464FF033742F01D| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

That's probably be the best solution, adding Swift and Sprint. Few other ideas I thought of would probably have issues. Apply it to Troller, Doms, patron pets etc as well.

How does everyone feel about suggesting a travel buff to all pets? Or be able to slot run speed IO to all of them rather than just Beasts and Ninjas?

SR is pretty good nowadays. Incarnates fills a lot of holes. Rebirth Radial Destiny is great. Also slotting as many Power Transfer procs as possible and the Preventtive Medicine proc. I have 3 PT and the one PM on a Stalker, and it averages out to around 15hp/sec heal. That's on top of base regen + random set bonuses. SR can softcap easily with minimal slotting. That leaves a lot of room to chase +damage bonuses. At one point the same Stalker had +58% damage, but that was including +10.5% from Assault Leadership and +10% from Assault Hybrid. But +37.5% from set bonuses still feels like a lot. It's like a perma Focuses Rage inspira. Holes in Dark Armor is pretty easy to fill. There's are alot of IOs that provide KB protection and none of them are unique. Dark Regeneration fixes a lot of the others problems. It's the best self heal in the game and the Theft of Essence proc helps with it's end cost.

This. I think there's also a thickness setting with 3 options. I chose the thickest one.

Not sure. Just made a separate tab and only added Pet Damage or something like that to the window.

OF proc works great on any pets that do damage. Even Gang War and Phantom Army.

Not sure about the animations but the attacks are definitely there.

Coincidentally, it's a screenshot of my MA/Shield Scrapper. Actually one thing I forgot, and I don't know if it's still holds true on Homecoming, but Phalanx Fighting added +2.25% base def for allies near you (Max 3 allies). I recall your own character counts as one ally. So even if your character is standing alone, PF buffs +2.25% def. Your defense may already be higher than what your Mids' is indicating. In Mids', right click on Phalanx Fighting and move the slider to one. When you hit level 20 and pick PF, double check your Combat Attributes to make sure it's still works.

Fighting Pool for Weave. It provide you the most +def of all the power pools. There are also Combat Jump and Stealth. Aegis in Tough can provide some +AoE defense. Six slotting Focus Chi with Gaussian's will provide another +2.5% def to all positions. Positional defense is more important for your build than type defense. A full set of Touch of Death would get you closer to melee softcap than Superior Blistering Cold. On another note, the build has too many LotG +7.5% recharge. Replace with Shield Wall and/or Reactive Defense uniques. A Performance Shifter proc adds about a 0.2 endurance gain and is better than that end IO in Physical Perfection. Active Defense gives a ton of KB resistance. Steadfast KB protection isn't needed. I think you have the base, a really good start, for a killer build. Just needs some fine tuning, a couple power changes.

I find Mercs/Storm to be a solid combo. With all the KD (With the use of the Sudden Acceleration IO), the build is very survivable. It's overpowered vs anything with little to no KB protection which seems like 90% of the enemies. Keep Gale on auto and go to town. Storm also really helps Merc's low dps. Arguably moreso than other MM primaries. Gale, Freezing Rain and Tornado can slot -resist debuff procs. This in turn helps Mercs and all the damage procs they can equip.

I had to test it for myself. It seems to stack, the numbers look strange though. I'm guessing MM's Fluffy has the same power as the Defender's DM version. It's debuffs seem much stronger than my own! Only powers I used for testing were Darkest Night and Nemesis Staff (To hold aggro). Fluffy used all it's own powers. Darkest Night, Twilight Grasp, Chill of the Night, Petrifying Gaze and Tenebrous Tentacles. 217.25 - No debuffs (I actually died this hit). 178.25 - MM's Darkest Night Summoned Dark Servant. 91.24 - MM+Fluffy Darkest Night x2 + Fluffy's Twilight Grasp. 104.61 - MM+Fluffy Darkest Night x2